Promotional video for Werq the World 2018, a international touring group of stars from Ru Paul’s Drag Race. Editing, FX, and color by me.

BinderCon 2014 Sizzle Reel

This is a promotional reel for the inaugural BinderCon held in October 2014 in New York City. Edited by me.

It Gets Better: Alexandra Chandler

This is an “It Gets Better” video featuring openly transgender former intelligence officer Alexandra Chandler, who is now running for an open Congressional seat in Massachusetts 3rd District. Her run for office will be featured in my upcoming series Her Next Mission, launching on Revry this spring. I shot and edited this film.

Born Dancing – Summer 2017 Newsletter

Born Dancing is an all-abilities, all-ages dance troupe. This newsletter chronicles the 2017 season. (Shot and edited by me.)

TODRICK IS COMING TO CHICAGO

Thank you Bob the Drag Queen for the referral. Shot mostly by me in a photo studio, some extra and very essential shooting by Jared Roybal in Chicago the Musical’s official Broadway home. Edited by me. Soup to nuts, this one took 72 hours.

BinderCon NYC 2015 Promo

BinderCon Screenwriting Promo 2017

KinkedIn Splash Page Video

KinkedIn is a new dating app for kinky people which will launch on a rolling basis over the course of 2017. They celebrate and respect folks of all genders, orientations, bodies, abilities, and backgrounds. I’m happy to have been a part of the AirBNB inspired moving photography on the site’s landing page! Shot and edited by me.

Promotional Video for Wilton Library (Wilton, CT)

This is a promotional video for the Wilton Library in Wilton, Connecticut. The film was produced by Brian Stillman, shot by both me and Brian, and edited primarily by me.

Jewelry.com spot for Rain Agency

A short documentary about Jewelry.com and the origin of their sales partnership with Alibaba. Editing and graphics by me. (Produced by Rain Agency.)

Silver Sirens

A short documentary about a group of senior cheerleaders who shout for healthcare.

Born Dancing is an all-abilities, all-ages dance troupe. This newsletter chronicles the 2017 season. (Shot and edited by me.)

ART & NARRATIVE FILM

Official REMEDY Trailer

REMEDY is the first feature film directed by Cheyenne, distributed for VOD by Gravitas Ventures and released on DVD in Germany/Austria/Switzerland through déjà-vu FILM. REMEDY is a hybrid of creative biography and narrative fiction, based on the director’s own experiences working as a pro-switch in New York City.

Produced, directed, written, and edited by me. Full list of credits available at the IMDB site.

WORK: Episode 1 – Timewasters

When I finished REMEDY, I had some regrets that I couldn’t fit in more of the light and absurd moments of the commercial fetish industry. “Timewasters” is a tribute to the hours spent waiting in lounges for clients who will never show up. While it may not make for drama, it is an integral part of the sex work experience. This short has already screened in festivals in Europe and Asia. I hope to add three more episodes to the collection this spring. (Credits at the end of film.)

Twirl Diary 21

This is the official trailer for Twirl Diary 21, a film by writer-director Roger Kingsepp. Roger hired me to shoot and edit his first film, a visual diary of New York City back rooms and gay bars of 1994, shot on the street 21 years (to the day) later. I am extremely proud to have been a part of this project – for more information, visit TwirlDiary21.com.

REMEDY Investor Trailer

This is a four minute extended “Investor Trailer” for REMEDY — hence the lack of color correction. 🙂

The Skill Set

Pitch trailer for The Skill Set. Written by Alana Massey, directed and edited by me.

STREET BEATZ with MONÉT X CHANGE

STREET BEATZ is an experimental talk show created by New York City drag queen Monét X Change. She picks a public space to get into full drag and whatever happens happens. I both filmed and edited this piece.

Street Beatz with Monét X Change

In the pilot, Monét meets a tourist from Oklahoma.

Episode Two: Brooklyn Bridge

Episode Two takes place on the Brooklyn Bridge on Easter Sunday 2017.

Episode Three: Grand Central Station

This one took a bit to get right, after a few aborted shoots due to overcrowding, corrupted media, dead batteries and my petrifying fear of high ceilings. (It’s mighty rare, and it is termed altacelaraphobia.) On the day we finally did get to shoot — a Friday after midnight — we were a bit nervous that the shoot would be abruptly halted by security. What we didn’t expect is that (a) no commuters would care (b) Monét would get upstaged by a bunch of intoxicated 20-somethings and (c) we’d complete the shoot in what probably should be a restricted area in the terminal.

MUSIC VIDEOS

BLOODBATH by BOB THE DRAG QUEEN (feat. MITCH FERRINO)

Stem to stern, this video took 72 hours and zero permits to complete, not including 3.5 hours of producing while driving — not recommended. I directed, produced, and edited this insane horror show.

Mornings Come and Go (MC Frontalot)

This music video combines the fairy tale that the song is based on — “The Mastermaid” — with an homage to my favorite 1980s romance flick Some Kind of Wonderful with a bit of Cyrano for garnish. As a storytelling vehicle, I tucked story and narration elements within a parody dating site called OKFineThen. I love the challenges of multi-channel storytelling, especially when combined with animation. Starring my friends Bob the Drag Queen, Hye Yun, and Melissa Roth.

“Limitless” (from “Wasted Love”)

I shot and edited this music video for a production called “Wasted Love,” a not-so-fairy-tale from the all-abilities dance company Born Dancing Inc. under the direction of Melissa van Wijk. The video was projected onto a large screen behind live dancers who were performing similar choreography on stage. The recording is “Limitless” by Misty Boyce, and she performed the song live during the show — because of this, the video includes a long shot of the Central Park pond to cue the performers and musicians.

Love Songs for the Rest of Us: How I Like It

“How I Like It” is a music video about enthusiastic consent, part of the project Love Songs for the Rest of Us. I contributed second camera and all post-production; yet another opportunity to experiment with rhythm and time remapping! Song by Jillian Buckley and Stephanie Ryan Johnstone. Directed by Rachel Chavkin.

While this wasn’t the video that got Bob the Drag Queen on “Drag Race,” I want to think it was the one that got him on RuPaul’s radar.

You Wear it Well — Monét X Change’s audition video for Season 8 of RuPaul’s Drag Race

My first RuPaul’s Drag Race audition music video collaboration with Monét X Change, and yet another chance for my bathroom to make an appearance. I took advantage of the rolling shutter and jelly effect on the a7s to enable whip pans without resorting to canned transitions and went for a vintage look in post. (Right down to dancing silhouette multi-superimposition segment in the middle.)

BOB THE DRAG QUEEN

My work with Bob the Drag Queen started back in 2014, when I walked into the wrong vegan bar and became fast friends with his then-roommate Honey LaBronx. A few months later, Bob asked me to shoot and edit the first of two RuPaul’s Drag Race audition music videos. Bob went on to win Season 8. This section is devoted to two full length projects with the comedian, Bob the Drag Queen: Suspiciously Large Woman currently on Logo and Revry and the upcoming docu-comedy-megaspecial A Queen for the People, coming to you in 2018.

Bob the Drag Queen: Suspiciously Large Woman (NSFW Trailer #1)

Bob the Drag Queen: Suspiciously Large Woman (SFW Trailer)

Bob the Drag Queen: Suspiciously Large Woman (NSFW Trailer #2)

A Queen for the People – Seed & Spark Campaign Video

BOB THE DRAG QUEEN! CAN WE TIP HER? YES WE CAN! This ridiculous video was part of a Seed & Spark campaign for the upcoming comedy/documentary special A Queen for the People.

Words cannot describe how fun these videos were to make. Intentionally bad green screening? YES PLEASE. (How else do you show the world how much you need the funding?)

FEED ME A STORY

Feed Me a Story is a transmedia project that encourages people to share secret family recipes in a documentary style video cookbook, produced by Theresa Loong and Laura Nova. I had the privilege of shooting these four videos at the Lower East Side Essex Market, which is just down the street from me.

Cheyenne Picardo

Filmmaker

Cheyenne Picardo received her BA in Film Studies and Creative Writing from Columbia College, determined to be a film critic and theorist. Then she fell in love with editing and documenting self-described freaks of the New York performance scene, eventually earning her MFA in Photography, Video and Related Media from the School of Visual Arts. Just before grad school, Picardo took the job that inspired her first feature film REMEDY, that of a pro-switch (dominatrix/submissive) at a commercial dungeon in New York City. Her focus recently has been using subjective storytelling techniques to explore sexuality, gender, mental health, memory, and marginalization. Her recent work includes Bob the Drag Queen’s Suspiciously Large Woman and Bob’s upcoming docu-comedy special A Queen for the People. She is also producing and directing Her Next Mission, an episodic political procedural documentary for LGBT streaming site Revry. This ambitious project will follow Alexandra Chandler as she leaves the intelligence community and runs for Congress; if elected she will be the first openly transgender woman to serve in the House of Representatives.

In her limited spare time, Picardo also co-hosts a podcast about media portrayals of urban life in the 1970s called Terrific City with journalist Melissa Gira Grant. The first season, a response to the HBO series The Deuce, just wrapped in November. She hopes to harness the power of the mass-media’s influence over culture to destroy outdated and dangerous tropes. In short, she is committed as a filmmaker and film educator to dismantling the destructive legacy of the Hays Code, one frame at a time.